Vannesa Rosales
The Only Ones Arrested After a Child’s Rape: The Women Who Helped Her
Militants and feminists - we do not get tired and we only fear silence in the face of injustice.
Vannesa Rosales is a feminist, women’s rights defender, teacher and social worker in the Pueblo Nuevo community. Vannesa Rosales has lived and worked in Pueblo Nuevo for over eight years. She has been involved in multiple projects which have greatly benefited the local community, for example, she is part of the team that founded the Open Studies of Politecnica Territorial University (UPTM), a programme focused on nursing, integral health, accounting in community management, the prevention of crime, and criminology. Vannesa Rosales has also a member of a local initiative which supports women in their defense of sexual and reproductive rights, with an emphasis placed on advocating for the decriminalisation of abortion.
HRDs have been working under restrictive policies for many years: the Maduro administration has continued the work begun by Chávez in restricting civil space and delegitimising HRDs, repeatedly accusing them of undermining the Venezuelan democracy with the alleged collaboration of the United States. HRDs are discredited and criminalised by state-controlled media (television, radio, print media) on a weekly basis.
